Sarithe-class Battlecruiser
Brief Information The Sarithe-class Battlecruiser is Muir Corporation's comparative design to a ''Imperial''-class Star Destroyer Mark II, and though it is much larger, it fulfills this required slot in the Muir Navy. The infamous ISD and ISD Mark II designs were created as the pinnacle of the Empire’s strength and reach. While there would be larger Star Destroyer designs, the ISD and ISD Mark II would be the most commonplace, the iconic capital ship of Palpatine’s regime. It would strike fear into the hearts of the citizens and make them thing twice about rising against the iron fist of the Empire. The Sarithe-class was designed to be much like that in ideology. The ship was designed to be a large physical embodiment of the Muir’s strength and dedication to their survival and prosperity. Designed by Uliur Arwen, the head of Radion Labs along with the entire Radion Labs design teams, the design and its sister design, the ''Mal'ik''-class Battlecruiser had been in the works for quite a while. As new and more powerful technology came into the Muir's hands, such as the completion of the first Project Angelus, the ship's design was constantly updated and worked on. Indeed, the ship's design will never fully be complete and the subsequent revisions will only increase the ship's fighting capability. It utilizes technology from different groups and factions, most of who are under the Muir banner. The ship is intended to be a rare sight at first, present in the fleets that venture outside of Muir systems and spheres of influence. Designed around a core group of values, the ship is a living embodiment of a synthesis of Muir, Omega, and Blissex/Wessex values. Core Values Muir Values The Muir Core Values are a set of values designed to bring together forces that will create a ship design that will efficiently reduce its opponent to slag. Three of these Core Values are present in the design for the Sarithe-class Battlecruiser. Muir Core Value I: Technology The Muir have always prided themselves on what they are: A noble House of Bothawui with a sizable control over the Bothan Spynet amongst other assets. That same Spynet that helped get the Rebel Alliance the information needed to find the Second Death Star has helped the Muir over the years. When they took over Omega Shipyards and defeated the Eldari Ascendancy, the Muir came into the Calidna System, Calidna, and what would one day become Radion Labs. To the Muir, this was just another facet of the Spynet's objectives. Whereas agents of the House worked undercover inside of their enemy's governments, organizations, and groups to ferret out weaknesses and information, those who worked at Radion Labs strived to come up with designs and pieces of technology that would allow the Muir to come out the victor in any confrontation. To that end, the Sarithe-class Battlecruiser has been packed with some of the most sophisticated and top of the line equipment. Anti-matter First and foremost amongst these is the presence of the Anti-matter reactor. Project Angelus’s result was that the Muir were able to tap into the great wealth of power that Anti-matter could create. They were able to build reactors that could safely and effectively harness the energy created from the reaction and then route the power through a ship for various uses. While the reactor and core would not need to be as large as other energy oriented reactors due to the sheer power and capabilities of anti-matter, Uliur chose to install a large anti-matter reactor into the design, to provide an abundance of energy for the design teams to put to use. One of the next pieces of technology would take up a portion of that energy, but leave plenty to spare. Recycling Many ships have recycling capabilities installed to help make the most of what is essentially a large mobile city. With crew counts that can go into the tens of thousands, there is a huge amount of waste that can take place, in addition to the waste that takes place during and after a battle. The recycling set up onboard the Sarithe-class does its best to reduce this waste as much as possible. After a battle, and possibly even during it, the tractor beams onboard the ship can be used to pick up smaller ships, such as transports, fighters, even small capitals ships, to use to create the spare and replacement parts needed to repair the ship and its fighter complements. In some cases, the ship can obtain enough spare parts of, for example’s sake, a ''Razor''-class Interceptor to create a new one, replacing the craft in the ship’s hangar bays, though they might lack a pilot for the craft. This reduces the time and effort taken to resupply the ship if it sustains pilot and equipment loss. Obviously, unless these parts are close to the original in quality, the ship and its fighters will experience a loss of effectiveness in a combat situation. Recycling for use onboard the ship itself should only be considered in a dire situation. Bahkran Efficiency Since first coming into contact with the peculiar and highly technological alien race through the effects of the Feraldra at Misery through Erik Muir and his padawan, Isaac Bel'kaar, the Muir were given different pieces of Bahkran technology and ships to study and utilize to improve their own ships and level of technology. While the Bahkran helped the Muir improve the lives of their citizens with breakthroughs in the field of medicine and biomechanics, the contributions to the Sarithe-class are not to be taken lightly. The Bahkran are huge aliens, and their ships are much larger than a normal ship due to their sheer size. The smallest of them are over 2 meters in height to give an insight into the problems that their engineers face. To combat this, they have fewer ships than a government or people of their size would normally sport, but their ships have multiple capacities at which they operate, and the Bahkran make sure that each capacity is achieved to the maximum. Artifical Intelligence Shortly after the Kinshai and T’jirin unleashed their navy on the Tasiv and destroyed the original Nexus Station, the Muir were successful in capturing the AI who had downloaded herself into a ship and escaped. The Muir would be unsuccessful at copying the AI’s code and duplicating her, but the idea of a large computer based entity would stick in Uliur’s brain for a while. The idea itself wasn’t new to the Muir, but the idea wasn’t one that was constantly on the surface of one’s brain. Now it was, and Uliur and his team were determined to use this idea for their benefit. In that regard, they created an AI that was linked through the entire ship and made use of an Eldar warrior controlling the Aether. It took many members of the team, and Uliur himself, a while to fully understand the Aether and its capabilities, but after many lectures from the Jade Hand, they were able to implement the Aether into their design. The AI brings up to date information on the entire ship to the commanding officer on the bridge, refreshing the information every minute during non-combat and every thirty seconds during combat. The commanding officer may, if he or she so desires, get updates on the ship from those in charge of individual departments if he or she feels uncomfortable with getting the information from an AI. Neutronium Alloy Hull The Sarithe-class is armored by a Neutronium hull, the metal given to the Muir by the Royal Britannic Republic. The armor gives the ship a higher than normal durability. When not painted, the ship has a distinctive blue coloring, a testament to the presence of the Neutronium in the design. While not the first design to have Neutronium present, it is the first to have a double hull composed of Neutronium. In addition, sensitive parts of the ship, such as the shield generators, hyperdrive, and bridge have been given a third layering of Neutronium, though there is no gap in between them. Bacteria When the Muir acquired three ''Nession''-class Cruisers, they were amazed by the bacteria culture that enabled the ship to quickly seal off any hull breaches, preventing a loss of atmosphere and helping to save the lives of the crewmembers in that section of the ship. Careful study of the three cruisers yielded no conclusive information on how the bacteria reproduced. That is, the Muir were unable to create that bacteria in their own labs. However, they were able to create a bacteria similar to it. This bacteria is nowhere near as effective as the original, but it can seal breaches in a timely fashion. The bacteria was introduced into the Neutronium hull in the same places as the third Neutronium hull layering, especially around the densest areas population wise of the ship. Muir Core Value II: Starfighters The Sarithe-class Battlecruiser has the Muir core value of a heavy starfighter presence. The Muir fleet has always been geared around the fighters, bombers, and interceptors that it fields, and this ship takes those strengths to a higher level. Examples of this value can be seen in the Memnarch, the ''Raklem''-class Assault Cruiser, the Muir Heavy Carrier and the Muir Light Carrier. The Sarithe lacks the cavernous hold of the Memnarch or the Memnarch-derived Raklem, but it is still able to field a number of starfighters double that of the Imperial Mark II. Uliur Arwen decided to sacrifice troop count to increase the hangar of the ship. He did this knowing that the ship, in the case of an invasion scenario, would be paired up with ships that would make up for this flaw. In fact, the large vertical disk of the ship is the hangar. The men and women who pilot and tend to the fighters go through a specialized change of gravity so that they feel as though they are walking normally, on a y-axis when they are walking along a z-axis in relation to the rest of the ship, according to a three dimensional coordinate system. Each individual squadron has a hangar bay with a dedicated group of droids and technical crew to keep the fighters in fighting condition. Each hangar bay has direct access to the cargo hold of the ship, where supplies and replacement parts are kept. In addition, the pilot’s quarters and ready rooms are located in the vertical disk, on an inside arc, cutting down on the time it takes for pilots to reach their fighters and leave the ship for combat. With each squadron given a separate hangar bay, this allows the fighters to launch much faster than their counterparts onboard other ships. When it comes to the troops that are on the ship, the hangars for their transports and shuttles are located at the rear of the two arcs. As is the case with the fighter hangar bays, the pilots and the troops’ quarters are located in the next ring of the arc, so that their response time is cut down. Muir Core Value III: Backup Shields This Muir core value is one that has only recently been developed, seen in its first instance in the ''Excalibur''-class Cruiser. The Muir have not been in that many confrontations and in almost all of those, their losses were light. For the most part, they chose their battles, opting for large fleet presence compared to their foe, to overwhelm their opponent and defeat them quickly, before any losses can take place. One battle where that did not happen was the Battle of Eldari Prime. While the MC-01 Memnarch Fleet was more powerful than their foe, the numbers were the same, meaning that there were more targets for the Muir to shoot at, but leaving each subsequent Eldari response to still pack a punch. After witnessing one of his best friend and trusted soldier Adam Gallatin's death onboard the Drake during the battle, Tej wanted to come up with a way to keep a ship fighting as long as possible. The Memnarch had needed to leave and had pulled a large percentage of the Muir fighter forces with it during the battle, allowing the Eldari a moment to regroup and strike. Almost all of the Muir’s losses during the battle took place during that time, when the Memnarch was away. They needed something that would help keep a ship fighting in extreme cases. The hull of a ship could only be strengthened so much. The shielding could only be so high. But the presence of backup shields, like the ones on the two MC55's that the Muir originally owned, allowed a ship a little bit more breathing room in a battle against either a more powerful enemy ship or a more numerous enemy taskforce. It was decided to make backup shielding a Muir Core Value when it came to the design of ships. Anything above Corvette or Gunship class was required to have some sort of backup shielding, or adequate reasoning to explain the lack thereof. The backup shields on the Sarithe-class, unlike the normal shields, do not overlap. Thus Sarithe-class will not be the last to feature backup shielding. Omega Values It can be said that without a doubt that the Ogriand sector has heavily influenced the Muir. Brought to a system where outsiders were considered third if not fourth class citizens, the Muir found themselves in a sector filled with pirate groups. When they took over Ogriand, the powerhouse system of the sector, and the only place, besides the Hysens System to have an entry/exit point into the sector, they were immediately targeted by various groups and organizations that operated in the sector. The Omega Shipyards’ design ethos has factored heavily into the Muir mentality and some of Omega’s Core Values are present in the Sarithe-class Battlecruiser. Omega Core Value I: Warheads Simply put, Omega’s greatest strength and greatest weakness was its warhead launchers. Different attempts were made to create various missile technologies, such as the PAX launchers or the Infighting Rockets. The reasoning behind this was that the Ogriand Sector was infamous for its use of warheads, and Omega only furthered this conception and reality through its designs. When the Muir took over, they were impressed by many of the designs and by the idea of heavily using warheads. Able to bypass shields and attack the hull of a ship, warheads were a powerful tool, as long as they weren’t shot down by the enemy before they could hit the ship. Thus many Omega designs featured large numbers of launchers to try to ensure that with each salvo more and more projectiles would get through. The Muir used the core value at first, but then rejected it during the design of the ''Excalibur''-class Cruiser. Later, they would begin to discuss its usefulness once more and would eventually bring it back into the design process. The Sarithe-class is not the first to feature the resurgence of the Omega Core Value of warheads. With the presence of sixty warhead launchers, it is clear that this is a core value used in the design and construction of the Sarithe-class. Omega Core Value II: Warhead Defense As stated earlier, warheads played a large part in the design of different Omega ships and in ship combat throughout the sector. Because of this, it was necessary to create systems that could defend against missile volleys. Quad laser cannons and point defense laser cannons are the most commonly used. The Lost Ones are an excellent example of this and the previous core value. Their ships feature a specially designed missile called the Shock Missile. Also present on all the ships is a system called the BMDS or Ballistic Missile Defense System. These two attributes were standard on their ships, sometimes coming before any energy weaponry, as proved by the ''Pouncer''-class Corvette. When the Lost Ones were destroyed and absorbed into the Muir fold, their designs were as well. The BMDS could not be translated to a ship the size of the Sarithe-class. Instead, Uliur and his design team used standard quad laser cannons to protect the ship from enemy warheads. The quad laser cannons serve a dual purpose, protecting the ship from enemy warheads and enemy fighters that get past the fighter screen of the Sarithe-class. Blissex/Wessex Core Values For a ship designed to fill the slot in the ISD size and up category, it would be foolish not to look at the two ships that define the category, the ISD and ISD Mark II. While the two ships shared a reported one hundred and seventy four thousand design flaws, it was the sheer size of the ship that won battles. Sixteen hundred meters of death was something that could easily frighten even the most courageous of warrior. While the Muir would not utilize the infamous Core Value of the dagger shape to the ship, they would opt to utilize another of the Blissex/Wessex Core Values. Blissex/Wessex Core Value I: Size Everyone knows that nothing tells others that you’re rich better than blatantly spending money. There is nothing that tells others that you’re powerful better than being able to invoke fear into the hearts of your subjects. There is nothing that tells others that your ship is extremely powerful better than size. The ''Executor''-class Super Star Destroyer was renowned for winning battles by not firing a shot. The sheer size of the nineteen kilometer long vessel was enough to send anyone to the table to talk the battle out. You may not have known how many guns and how many fighters were onboard that ship, but you did know that it was probably more than you had. In that regard, the Sarithe-class borrows from this Core Value just through its size. Clocking in at two thousand five hundred and fifty meters, the ship is nowhere near the size of the Executor-class, but it is larger than both the Imperial and Imperial Mark II class as well as the ''Allegiance''-class, another rarer Star Destroyer design. It is larger than the Imperial and Imperial Mark II class by nearly a ''Victory''-class Star Destroyer’s length. Suffice to say, the Sarithe-class is a powerful foe that not many will want to entangle themselves with. History of Design Information Coming Soon Use The Sarithe-class would not see completion until the end of 16 ABY and implementation in the beginning of 17 ABY. It was decided that the ship would be a command ship for the fleets and it would be extremely rare to spot one at first. Its cost factored heavily into this decision. The first of the ships was completed shortly after the birth of Tej Sha'rn-Muir's son, Mal'ik and was christened the Sarithe after the class name and the inspiration for the name, Tej's wife. Despite the fact that Auron Roken lobbied heavily in their favor, no vessels of the Sarithe-class would be present at the Battle of Arvis Prime. It had already been decided that a large number of older ships would be used. This would later prove to be a blessing in disguise due to Arvis Prime's defenses. However, when the Muir naval forces revisited the planet a short while later, the design was present in the form of the first three vessels of the class and the three participated in the second part of the battle, with great success. After this, the design was put into full production amongst the Muir Navy. It would see use almost immediately, going to help the Jedi Order and the Brotherhood of the Force during the War of Darkness. The design was amongst the vessels of the MC Command Fleet at the Battle of Mon Calamari Known Vessels Muir Corporation Command Fleet Courageous Titan Demolisher Savior More Coming Soon Category: MirrodinCategory: Muir Corporation ShipsCategory:Capital ShipsCategory:CruisersCategory:CarriersCategory:Battleships